Catalina - Feb. 08

Each Catalina trip seems to be plagued with seasickness. To quote George from Seinfeld, "The seas was angry that day my friend." It was a very rough crossing with 5-7 swells abeam. In surfer terms it was torched and blown out. Several on board became seasick and one was hurling over the rail. Rail and hull were dully cleaned after the voyage. Those that got sick did so as a result of not taking the prescribed tablet of Dramamine. Needless to say all six on board were eager to take a tablet for the return passage.

The picture above was taken on Saturday morning. That's Bella in the foreground. The weather turned out to be quite nice for a February day. After this picture I went to shore for a hike up and around the hillside. It was a great day for a hike not to mention the great views the clear skies provided.

We had hoped to see significant marine life while traveling to and from Catalina. This time of year whales are migrating while dolphins and seals are always plentiful. What we didn't expect to see was the very rare giant pink sea cucumber! Rarely seen in these wasters this was a real treat. Even more rare is seeing one surface such as this one.

Unfortunately, upon closer inspection it was nothing more than a valentine's cache of pink balloons. I'm sure someone was wondering where they drifted off to. In fact, the sea was littered with valentine balloons of every kind. Red hearts seem to be the most popular. I wonder where these balloons are now. Is some Chinnese fisherman hauling them aboard wondering where did these come from?

Oh the sailing. We did sail some both there and back. On the way there the wind was dead ahead. I was happy to tack my way to Catalina as we left early in the morning but once our swabbies became sick, I doused the sails, fired up the motor and set a direct course for Avalon.

On the way back with Dramamine providing the swabbies their sea legs we hoisted sails. The wind directly at our backs with swells abeam I set off on a broad reach for home port.

It was pretty uneventful traveling back with beautiful clear skies. No marine life surfaced with the exception of the nose of a small seal. There were even fewer sightings of the valentinos-ballonious species on the way back. They must have traveled through the night working their way to China.

Back in Long Beach we had enough sun to unpack and clean the boat with time left over to take in a beautiful sunset. All in all it was a fun trip with family and friends.